Month: January 2010

BURBANK — A little unexpected spare time so I figured I’d post the latest installment of Adventures in Travel.

Seems the plane that was to bring me home to San Jose was struck by lightning on its way into Burbank. Not enough damage to prevent it from landing safely here (thankfully), but something is wrong so they’re grounding the 737 for now.

Which is fine with me — better safe than sorry, and all that.

For once in this job, I’m not in a huge hurry to get back. Mark Emmons has a fine story on Dany Heatley ready to put into tomorrow’s paper so no pressure on me in that department.

On top of that, Todd McLellan rewarded the guys with a day off and canceled a practice that I would have barely gotten back for the tail end of had my original flight taken off as planned. Continue Reading →

BURBANK — Decided to avoid LAX this trip and chillin’ in the hotel for a bit before heading to the Staples Center.

No morning skate today so nothing to report as far as who’s in goal or any line changes (as if, following last night’s scoring binge).

But I do have some time to catch up on a few things missing in the morning coverage of that 9-1 humiliation the Sharks slapped on Calgary.

*****Like that third-period fight between Torrey Mitchell and Rene Bourque in the battle of No. 17s. When I do connect with the Sharks later, Mitchell is one of the players I want to talk with.

Best as I can tell (and that fine and accurate web site hockeyfights.com confirms) that was Mitchell’s first NHL fight and he ended up going toe-to-toe with a guy three inches taller and 15 pounds heavier.

Scott Nichol, another guy who usually gives up even more size in a scrap, was proud to see Mitchell’s response to an elbow from Bourque. Continue Reading →

**** Expect to see more of those physical battles between Douglas Murray and Jarome Iginla tonight. The Sharks, by the way, aren’t exactly happy to see the Flames captain coming in on an eight-game goal drought.

“You never want a hot guy or you never want a cold guy,” defenseman Dan Boyle said. “It’s never good either way. He’s skilled enough to come out of that at any time.”

Added Todd McLellan later:

“If you play the odds, eventually he’s going to score. A guy like that doesn’t go half a season without scoring goals. Jarome’s a streaky guy – when he gets it going, it goes well for him. We’d just like it to be another day, not today.

“We’ll treat Jarome the same way we’ve treated him every other game. He’s still a dangerous player.”

So there were still maybe a half dozen players in the Sharks locker room after practice today when the shootout began in the Red Wings- Blackhawks game being shown on the flat screens.

Let’s just say they were totally transfixed on watching every move and got caught up into it in the same way, if not more intensely, than fans do. Pavel Datsyuk’s goal got even more attention — especially from a very much impressed Devin Setoguchi — than Todd Bertuzzi’s spin-a-rama (which I think could have gone to video review to make sure he didn’t come to a complete stop).

Watching this, I figured I had to ask someone if shootouts were more fun when your team wasn’t involved in the outcome.

“Good question,” said Jody Shelley. He never did get around to answering it, but he did toss out a pretty revolutionary idea of his own. Continue Reading →

Some stories practically write themselves and that was the case with today’s on the Sharks’ 4-2 victory over Edmonton.

Player in slump. Player shaves head. Player scores two goals.

Combine that with a 1 p.m. start and that’s about as good as the work day gets for the beat writer.

I never know how much information the TV and radio guys have already provided on a subject, so be patient if you already know what’s coming up next. But here’s a bit of the back story on Devin Setoguchi’s decision to start a fresh crop of that thick black hair from scratch.

“I did it once in junior when I was 18 and hadn’t scored a goal in a while,” said Setoguchi, going back to his days with the Saskatoon Blades. Continue Reading →

The boss gave me the day off today so I wasn’t at the morning skate and am only now back at the computer, armed with one tidbit of information from my colleague Mark Emmons who covered it for the Merc.

He says that there was one line change at practice today, but CoachTodd McLellan advised him something to the effect that it wasn’t locked into place yet so don’t be thinking it’s a done deal.

But … with the lack of secondary scoring, you had to figure something was coming. And to me, the question has been if or when McLellan would break up his big line, the one that’s doing all the scoring, in order to spread the top talent throughout the lineup.

Well, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley skated together at practice today, but there were changes. Without further ado:

Malhotra-Pavelski-Setoguchi

Clowe-Nichol-Ortmeyer

Again, McLellan went out of his way to say this wasn’t a sure thing. And, I’m guessing here, there could be a Worcester call-up that changes the dynamic. Continue Reading →

Joe Thornton says it’s just another game, Evgeni Nabokov will be in nets, Manny Malhotra will be in the lineup after missing five games with a lower body injury, and Jay Leach can expect to get a little more attention than usual in the coverage on the Bruins home station, NESN.

Last things first.

Leach can expect to get more than just a mention because his wife, Kathryn Tappen, is a sportscaster handling the studio work tonight along with one of three analysts: Mike Milbury, Gord Kluzak or Barry Pederson.

“One of them will definitely throw it out there,” Leach predicted.

As far as his wife’s rooting interest, “I would hope she’s rooting for her husband, but professionally she’s probably rooting for the Bruins,” he said.

After playing only once in his first 13 games with the Sharks, Leach will be playing in his fifth of the last seven. Continue Reading →

There wasn’t any WiFi on the flight home from Phoenix this morning, so while I could make use of the time to write, I needed to wait till I landed back in San Jose before posting.

Not that there’s anything of much urgency here.

Biggest scoop I can drop into the conversation here is that there were a couple of non-hockey playing pro athletes hanging around the visitors’ locker room last night after the Sharks 3-1 victory over the Coyotes.

(Full disclosure: I had to ask around to find out exactly who Thornton was talking to at the time. My ability to recognize MLB players based in Boston is admittedly pretty limited, much to the chagrin of my Red Sox-loving sister and her family back there.)

You got the feeling Thornton and Pedroia might have some Boston connection even though the second baseman’s rookie-of-the-year season came after the big center was traded to San Jose. Continue Reading →